Two brothers are facing up to two years in prison after pleading guilty of defrauding an investor of over $140,000 in BTC by impersonating the crypto exchange HitBTC.
According to court documents released, the Canadian brothers Singh Khatkar and Karanjit Singh Khatkhar pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in relation to a scam they carried out on Twitter in July 2018.
Original case documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon claim the brothers posed as support service for HitBC on Twitter and were able to convince an unnamed 63-year-old female client to reveal her account email address. The brothers were then able to hack into her account, stealing 23 BTC worth $140,000 at the time.
According to the documents, the brothers,
Did unlawfully, knowingly, and intentionally transfer, possess, and use, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another, knowing that the means of identification belonged to a real person.
In a hearing, the victim said she pitied the hackers, telling the court,
I feel sorry for them. I have a son that’s 27. I hope they can turn their smarts into something more beneficial.
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